Editorial:
You have to say one thing about San Diego Mayor, Bob Filner: he is not afraid. He is not afraid to take on the city council and he is not afraid to confront the City Attorney – at the City Attorney’s own press conference! Former Mayor Jerry Sanders never confronted his antagonist, former City Attorney Mike Aguirre, in such a public display. And now recently, in Filner’s boldest move in his short two month stint as Mayor, he has taken on the Hotel Industry.
This fight with the Hotel Industry takes on more significance when you add in the fact that one of the biggest hotel owners is Doug Manchester who also owns the UT, the North County Times, and other media outlets. Manchester has the ability to shape the message and attack Mayor Filner with his version of the story.
Mayor Filner is holding hostage a sum of $30 million to promote San Diego as a destination spot. Mayor Filner is seeking a better deal for the city and a living wage for the hotel workers, while protecting the city from lawsuits.
We agree with Mayor Filner that the hotel workers deserve a living wage. These are the invisible workers, who keep the big hotels nice, clean, and shiney but are rarely seen by the guests. After a day of back breaking work, they go home to their crowded apartments or small homes as they try to figure how to pay rent and buy groceries.
This singular point about paying living wages was supported by a report this week. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) have joined the nationwide boycott of Hyatt hotels in response to widespread evidence of harmful working conditions for hotel housekeepers, who are predominantly women of color, and low wages.
In San Diego there are three Hyatt hotel boycotts including the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego.
It must be noted that the Hyatt hotel properties are not the only hotels cited for abuse. In a study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine examining a total of 50 hotel properties from five different hotel companies, abuses and low wages were reported. But it was the Hyatt housekeepers that had the highest injury rate of all housekeepers studied when compared by the report. As such, Hyatt has become the focus of the campaign to change the working conditions and low wages.
In talking with many people on the street, there is support for Mayor Filner’s stance to hold the hotels responsible for living wages. In media not owned by Manchester there is a different picture being painted. One such editorial can be found on San Diego City Beat website that gives an interesting background to the issues surrounding the Filner position (http://www.sdcitybeat.com).
So while it may appear that Mayor Filner is a loose cannon, there is support in the community for his position. Now it is a matter of time to see how this all plays out.